The Love of a Hawk
by jessidamon
Summary: Giving into her feeling was something Victoria Matthews was trained not to do, she was constantly told feeling cloud judgment but a certain agent held her heart and had no idea he did. Hawkeye did the unthinkable to Victoria before he realized how much he cared for her. Can they both find a way to mend what is broken and realized how much they care for each other. Barton/OC centric
1. Chapter 1

**After watching the Avengers movie a couple of times I had the urge to write a fanfic for it, this is the first story I have written in the third person. There aren't many Hawkeye/OC stories so I decided this would be one. I'm putting this out there to see what kind of response I get from it, if it does well with you readers I will continue it. Please read and review if you could. Warning in this first chapter there will be a lot of spoilers for the movie, also this rated M for language and future chapters will have mature content.**

**Chapter One**

Victoria Matthews was an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. for four years now, she wasn't any special super hero like the Avengers but she was a trained spy, Victoria was trained by Natasha and Clint and they formed a close relationship between the three of them. The last few months had been a bit hectic around SHIELD everyone had been disbursed on separate missions, Natasha was in the middle of a spy mission in Russia and Clint was guarding the tesseract in one of the other compounds. Victoria on the other hand was stuck on the carrier because on her last mission she was instructed to get the Intel they needed and get out but her mark figured her out before completing her mission causing Natasha and Clint to have to swoop in and help her out. Director Nick Fury was pissed he had to pull them from their missions to do it and was now in his own way punishing her for that. Victoria had thing for Clint but she wouldn't let it go any further then that because she didn't want to ruin what they had as partners. The tough part was the two of them got into an argument right before he left about her being mad when Fury sidelined her, Victoria hated fighting with him but she couldn't control her anger.

"Agent Matthews, Director Fury wants you on the bridge." Agent Maria Hill said from behind Victoria as she was walking down the hall to the gym.

"Did he say what he needed?" Victoria asked when she turned to face Maria who was standing in the middle of the hall.

"All he said was to find you and tell you not to keep him waiting." Maria said as she smiled and Victoria nodded her head as she walked away.

Victoria walked quickly to the bridge not wanting to keep Director Fury waiting seeing she was already on his bad side at the moment. When she walked in he was in the middle of barking orders at everyone around him, Victoria stood there quietly waiting for him to address her. Director Fury finally turned to face her and the look on his face wasn't pleasant at all.

"Director you wanted to see me?" Victoria asked him.

"I tired multiple times to contact you on your communicator." He snapped at her and Victoria cringed when she realized it was left in her room. "The point of that ear piece is so I can communicate with my agents when I need them, I shouldn't have to send other agents to look for them."

"Sorry I was on my way to the gym and forgot to pick it up when I left my room." Victoria said hoping he wouldn't think she was being negligent on the job.

"Don't let it happen again, a few of us agents need to go down into the field." He said turning away from her and looked at one of the computer screens. "We are having some issues with the tesseract."

"I can be ready in five." Victoria said as she started to turn away but Fury stopped her when he spoke.

"You're not coming with me, I need you here." he said and she quickly turned to face him with a shocked look, Fury had never made her stay behind when it was a huge concern and the tesseract was a huge concern.

"If this is because of what happen in Ireland…" Victoria began to say but was cut off before she could finish.

"Are you questioning my orders?" Fury growled at her.

"No sir." Victoria said back to him as she tried to contain her anger. "What would you like me to do?"

Fury smirked at her causing her blood to boil even more. "I just need you to be on alert and keep your eye on the bridge while Agent Hill is accompanying me."

"Yes sir." Victoria said as she turned and walked away. Once out of site from Fury she punched the wall out of anger.

"That's not going to help." Maria said from behind Victoria and she quickly spun around to face her. "Just give him some time and he will get over that whole Ireland thing."

"You knew he was going to make me stay behind." Victoria snapped at her.

"Victoria it wasn't my place to tell you." Maria said defensively to her.

"This is bullshit, I have been an agent here for four years and haven't made a mistake like this since my first mission." Victoria snapped she knew it wasn't Maria's fault but she was having a hard time controlling her anger.

"It was supposed to be a one month mission that turned into three months and then you were falling for the mark, you didn't do that on your first mission!" Maria snapped at her. "You gave the guy all he needed to figure out you were undercover and he almost killed you."

"I wasn't falling for him." Victoria snapped at Maria.

"Agent Barton told Director Fury how you hesitated on killing him, if you weren't falling for him then why the hesitation?"

"That wasn't Clint business, no one chastised Clint when he made the call not to kill Natasha but I'm being sent through the wringer because I had a moment of hesitation on a kill." Victoria snapped at Maria. "I heard the stories about his call with Natasha."

"That was different Victoria and you know it, Patrick would have killed you if Clint didn't show up when he did. Natasha didn't try to kill Clint."

"I pulled the damn trigger and killed him." Victoria snapped at her. "He's dead isn't he?"

"You only pulled the trigger because he had Clint pinned down." Maria snapped at her and Victoria was getting more pissed as she stood there. "I'm ready to go." Maria said looking over Victoria's shoulder.

Victoria glanced over her shoulder and saw Director Fury standing behind her. Nick Fury knew he was being hard on Victoria for the whole Ireland thing but he had to make sure she knew that kind of behavior was not tolerated when his agents lives depended on her. "If you ladies are done with the trip down memory lane we need to leave." He said sarcastically to them. "Agent Matthews I need you to be on high alert." He said turning away and Hill followed behind him quickly.

Victoria was well aware of the mistake she made in Ireland and even though she denies it every time the subject comes up, she was falling for Patrick not realizing he was playing her the whole time. Patrick knew from the start she was spying on him and used that against her. The truth behind it was that it wasn't her bullet that killed Patrick her shot was off and it had been Natasha who actually killed him. Natasha's reports had said other wise and she had kept that between the two of them, Clint has had his suspicion about it and questioned Natasha but she stuck to the story she put on her report. If it had not been for Natasha showing up both Clint and Victoria could have probably been killed.

It had been a couple of hours since Fury and Hill left to go meet up with Agent Coulson and Barton, she hadn't heard a word from them and it was beginning to aggravate her. Victoria sat at the desk with her feet up looking at different monitors waiting for some kind of word about what was going on then all of a sudden alarms started going off and she quickly dropped her feet to the floor when her phone rang.

"We are at a level seven, Agent Barton has been compromised and the tesseract is with hostiles." Agent Phil Coulson said before she could even say hello. He was hoping she really didn't catch the part about Barton.

"What the hell do you mean Clint has been compromised?" Victoria snapped as she stood on her feet and ran her free hand through her hair. "Where is he?"

"I don't know where he is right now and I'll explain more when I get there, I'm only about ten minutes out." Coulson said as he hung up on her.

Victoria paced back and forth through the bridge waiting on Coulson to get there, when he finally arrived he saw a very panicked Victoria. He knew she was close with Barton and he hated that Fury left it up to him to tell her what happened. Victoria closed her eyes and rolled her neck in an attempt to relieve the tension when she turned to go back the way she came Coulson was standing in her path.

"What happened to Clint?" she asked him before he could open his mouth.

"I needed to call Agent Romanoff then I will explain." Coulson said as he walked around her making his call. "Vicky we will figure this out." he said to her over his shoulder.

Victoria stood close by listening in on the call but just as he had with her he had kept the call brief on what he had said to Natasha. When Phil finally told Victoria what happen she was more worried knowing that with Clint's skills being used against them wasn't going to be a good thing and Loki's mind control over him scared her. Fury was off getting Steve Rogers better known as Captain America and Natasha was sent to get Dr. Bruce Banner also known as the Hulk. Agent Coulson asked Victoria to accompany him to Stark Tower and she knew it was out of pity because Fury was still being a dick with her.

Tony Stark was trying to avoid talking with Coulson until Phil decided to just override Jarves and put his call right through to Stark as they rode up the elevator. Victoria listened to the banter between the two until the elevator doors opened and they stepped into the room with Tony Stark and a lady that was there with him. Victoria knew who Tony was through files that she had read and some of the stories Natasha told.

"Security breach!" Tony said sarcastically to the lady that was standing there with him. "That's on you." he said pointing at her.

"Mr. Stark." Coulson said nodding at him.

"Phil come in." the lady said to Coulson.

"Phil? Uh… his first name is Agent." Tony said sarcastically again.

"Come on in, we were celebrating." The lady said as she moved closer to them and stuck her hand out to Victoria. "I'm Pepper Potts."

"Pepper this is Agent Matthews." Phil said as Victoria shook her hand.

"I told you their first name is Agent." Tony said walking a little closer to them. "Agent Matthews you may stay and celebrate with us but Coulson is leaving."

"We need you to look this over." Phil said as Victoria tried to hand him the file she was carrying. "Soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things." Tony said shaking his head at them.

"That's alright because I loved being handed things." Pepper said taking the file from Victoria's hand as she handed her a champagne glass. "So let's trade." She handed the file over to Tony and took the champagne glass Tony had in his hand. "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday." Tony said glancing down at the file.

"This isn't a consultation." Victoria said to him and he looked at her with a smirk.

"So Agent Matthews can talk, almost thought you were a mute." He said smiling at her.

"Is this about the Avengers? Which I… I know nothing about." Pepper said as she took a drink from her glass.

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought and I didn't even qualify." Tony said shaking his head.

"I didn't know that either." Pepper said again.

"Did you qualify Agent Matthews?" Tony said looking over at Victoria and she just shrugged her shoulders at him. "Yeah, join the club with me apparently I'm volatile, self obsessed and don't play well with others."

"That I did know." Pepper said and Tony shot a glare in her direction which she just smiled off.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Phil said as Tony walked away.

"Whatever. Miss Potts, you got a minute?" Tony said to Pepper and she walked over to the desk he was standing by.

The two of them spoke in a hush tone as Victoria and Phil watched them, Tony expanded his arms and different profiles appeared in holographic form floating in front of Pepper and Tony. They both looked on in awe of what was in front of them then Pepper, shook her head. "I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight." She said to him.

"Tomorrow." Tony said as he tried to pull Pepper closer to him.

"You've got homework… you got a lot of homework." Pepper said looking over at the screens again.

"Well if I didn't?" Tony asked her.

"If you didn't?" Pepper asked him and he gave her a slight nod with a low yeah. "You mean if you finish?" she said and Tony nodded his head at her. "Well… Um… Then…" she whispered the rest in his ear and the two agents watching quickly turned away when they heard Tony gasp.

"Do you think we should maybe go out and give them some privacy?" Victoria asked Phil in a low voice as Tony said something to Pepper and Phil just shrugged his shoulders.

"Work hard." Pepper said as she walked up to the two agents. "Would you two like to accompany me down the elevator and can you give me a lift to the airport?"

The two agents nodded at her as they followed her to the elevator leaving Tony there staring at the images in front of him. Phil and Pepper held small talk on their way down and Victoria stood there quietly listening to them. Once they were back to the helicarrier Fury sent Coulson to go pick up Captain Rogers. Victoria stood there looking at the images of Clint that were playing on the screen when Fury walked up behind her.

"Agent Matthews."

"Director do you think whatever Loki did to Agent Barton is permanent?" she asked as she took one last look at his picture then turned to Fury.

"Let's hope not, he is a good agent and I really hate to lose him to this." Fury said hearing the concern in her voice. "Don't let your feelings for Agent Barton cloud your judgment." Fury then walked away from her leaving her standing there with a shocked look on her face as he stood in the center of the bridge looking at his screens. Everyone was going about their work to get the helicarrier in the air. Victoria stood off to the side watching the team work and once things were a little settled Captain Rogers and Dr. Banner walked in. "Gentlemen." Fury said to them as Rogers handed him money.

As they spoke to each other Victoria watched as Natasha walked to the same screen she was just at and looked at the picture of Clint that was on it. Then Natasha turned back to the conversation when Phil was done talking. "That's still not going to find them in time."

"You have to narrow the field, how many spectrometers do you have access to?" Dr. Banner asked as he glanced over at Victoria and tilted his head a little in wondering.

"How many are there?" Fury asked getting Bruce's attention back on him.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition." Banner said glancing again at Victoria. "At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Fury said as he walked over to Victoria and Natasha nodded at him. "Agent Matthews, can you please show Captain Rogers to his room so he could get settled in?" Victoria nodded as she walked over to Steve Rogers.

"Hello Captain, I'll show where you can get settled at." Victoria said as she stuck her hand out to Steve Rogers and he shook it then followed her out.

"You're gonna love it, doc. We got all the toys." Natasha said to Bruce as he followed her down the hall.

"The other agent in there looked upset, is everything alright with her?" Bruce asked Natasha catching her a little off guard with the question. "I don't mean to pry."

"No that's ok, Agent Matthews and I are good friends with Agent Barton and he has been compromised."

"Oh… I see." Bruce said in a low voice. "I hope things turn out good for your friend."

"So do I." Natasha said as she showed Bruce into the lab and then went looking for Victoria. Natasha found Victoria walking towards her room. "Vicky, how are you holding up?"

"I'm good." Victoria said trying to sound like things were ok with her. "Nat I'm just worried about Clint."

"We all are but your showing way too much emotion in front of people." Natasha said as she got closer to Victoria and nudged her into her room. "Vicky he is going to be fine."

"You don't know that, if Fury had let me go with him to New Mexico…" Victoria started to say but Natasha cut her off.

"Things could be a lot worse than it already is, Loki could have compromised the both of you or could have killed one of you."

"I know, you're right. It just sucks not being able to do anything or even know where he is."

"Believe me I know how you feel." Natasha said laying her hand on Victoria's shoulder. "Let's go back to the bridge and see if there were any hits yet, remember what Clint taught you about checking your emotions."

Just as they were walking into the bridge Steve Rogers was walking out. "Ladies we got a hit, I need the two of you to fly Captain Rogers to this location." Fury said to them as he showed them the location on the screen.

The three of them were quickly on their way to Germany, once there things were chaotic. By the time Captain Rogers was dropped out of the Quinjet they could plainly see a man standing over the crowd that was kneeling before him. Victoria realized that was Loki standing there and she tried her hardest to look around for any sign of Clint. Natasha's voice brought her attention back to Loki.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha said into the PA system.

Loki smirked at them and shot a blue blast out of his scepter towards the Quinjet but Natasha and Victoria were quick to maneuver it out of the way. The two of them stood there watching as Captain and Loki fought. "Nat can you get a clean shot on him?" Victoria asked as she still scanned the area for any sign of Clint.

"The guy is all over the place." Natasha said sounding pissed.

Then suddenly AC/DC started playing on the Quinjet's speaker system and Victoria looked over at Natasha when she heard her groan loudly. "Agent Romanoff did you miss me?" Tony's voice could be heard and it hit Victoria why Natasha had groaned.

"Is he always that arrogant?" Victoria asked her and Natasha smirked.

"Yes he is." Natasha said as they watched Loki surrender.

Once Loki was loaded into the jet they began to make their way back to headquarters. Natasha and Victoria were a little weary of the storm coming out nowhere. "Has he said anything?" they heard Fury ask over the headsets.

"Not a word." Natasha answered him.

"Just get him here we are low on time." Fury said.

"I don't like it." Steve said to Tony.

"What, rock of ages giving up so easily?" Tony said sarcastically.

"I don't remember it ever being that easy, this guy packs a wallop." Steve said glancing over at Loki.

"You're still spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing, pilates?" Tony asked and everyone could see the confusion on Steve's face.

Victoria and Natasha both were trying to ignore Tony's jabs at Steve as they were trying to pay close attention to the sky that was getting very violent on them. "Where is this coming from?" Natasha said as she was trying to keep the Quinjet leveled then a flash of lightning lit up the Quinjet.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Steve asked turning to look at Loki now.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Loki said sounding truly worried.

There was a loud crash of thunder then something landed on the roof of the Quinjet. "What the hell was that?" Victoria said looking back at the guys behind them.

When Tony opened the back hatch someone jumped in and was kneeling on the ramp then quickly stood up. He knocked Tony back and walked over to Loki grabbing him by the throat and jumped out of the jet with him. Steve and Tony stood there in shock for a moment.

"Now there's that guy." Tony said sarcastically.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked as she glanced over her shoulder at them.

"Think the guy is friendly?" Steve asked.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the tesseract is lost." Tony said walking to the back of the jet and was about to jump out.

"Stark we need a plan of attack!" Steve snapped at him.

"I have a plan. ATTACK!" Tony said jumping out.

Then Steve quickly grabbed a parachute to follow behind him. "I'd sit this one out, Cap." Natasha said as she glanced back at him.

"This is one you don't want to get involve with." Victoria said agreeing with Natasha.

"I don't see how I can." Steve said shaking his head at them.

"These guys come from legends, they're basically Gods." Natasha said hoping to convince him.

"There's only one God, Ma'am and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Steve said then he jumped out of the jet.

"I guess he wants to find that out himself." Victoria said to Natasha.

Once things were settled between the egos of the men the whole group were on their way back to the helicarrier. Victoria was now worried like Captain Rogers had been on how too easy this was, something was not right and she couldn't figure out what it was. After watching the armed SHIELD agents escort Loki to the cage Victoria went to her room. The last couple of days have seemed to be getting to her now, her nerves were at their end and all she wanted was to know that Clint was alive and ok. Seeing as she wasn't a part of the Avengers Victoria chose not to go to the briefing room with the rest of them. It might have been a scrapped project but that didn't mean they weren't all aware of the fact that it was needed. Victoria laid back in her bed closing her eyes remembering the last conversation she had with Clint just before he left.

"I don't understand why Fury keeps punishing me." Victoria growled as she slammed her dresser draw closed. "You and Natasha are both leaving for missions and I'm stuck here, this isn't fair."

"You screwed up big in Ireland." Clint said looking at her as he leaned against the door opening.

"I know I screwed up, you don't have to keep reminding me." Victoria snapped at him. "We all made it out alive and I got everything that was asked of me."

"Vic, Patrick was about to fucking stab me in the heart and you hesitated on shooting him." Clint snapped at her as he pushed himself off the door and moved further into the room, he was pissed she acted like it was no big deal. "I told you to never fall for a mark, it complicates things more than it should be."

"I wasn't falling for him and if I was that is not your damn business. My personal life is none of your concern." Victoria yelled at him. "What I do outside of SHIELD is on me not you!"

"You weren't outside of SHIELD! You were undercover and you fucked up!" he yelled at her. "Why the hell did you cry when the bastard died if you weren't falling for him?"

"I thought he was different, I thought he could change." She said to Clint and he shook his head at her. "I was trying to help him."

"He didn't want your help he wanted to kill you and would have if I didn't show up there." Clint yelled at her. "When you let your emotions cloud your judgment things go bad and you let that happen, we taught you better than that."

"I don't need you chastising me also." Victoria snapped at him. "You have a damn mission to get to so just fucking leave. I don't want to be anywhere near you!"

"Fuck you then!" he growled at her. "I was trying to help you."

"I don't want or need your help!" she yelled at his retreating back.

Victoria didn't want that to be the last conversation she had with Clint, she wanted to apologize for being such a bitch to him. Not being able to take the silence of her room anymore Victoria climbed out of the bed and just roamed around the halls avoiding the bridge and labs the whole time. Just as she was about to turn one of the corners she heard Loki's voice.

"There is not many people who can sneak up on me." Loki said.

"But you figured I would come." Victoria heard Natasha say.

"After… after whatever torturers Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend. A balm and I would cooperate." Loki said in a very calm voice to Natasha.

"I want to know what you have done to Agent Barton." Natasha said to him and the worry was clearly heard in her voice.

"I'd say I expanded his mind." Loki said in an almost cheerful but evil voice.

"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?" Natasha asked.

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki said to her, Victoria felt her chest tighten at his words. She wanted to walk away and not hear any more of the conversation but she couldn't get her legs to move.

"Love is for children, I owe him a debt." Natasha said in a calm voice.

"Tell me." Loki said in an equally calm voice.

"Before I worked for SHIELD I uh… well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset." She said to him. "I didn't care who I used it for or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out." Natasha said in a very calm voice but because Victoria has worked with her for so long already she was able to hear the anger in it.

Loki's laughter to Natasha's response had Victoria's blood boiling. "Ah… no but I like this. Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man." Loki said in an evil voice.

"Regimes fall every day, I tend not to weep over that. I'm Russian… or I was."

"What is it you want?" Loki asked her.

"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I like to wipe it out."

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter, Sao Pablo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything, I'm actually surprised Agent Matthews isn't standing here with us… Oh dear Patrick what must he think wait she killed him. She is such a disappointment to Clint."

"Leave her out of this Loki." Natasha snapped at him.

You're ledger is dripping, it's gushing red and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?" Loki snapped at her. "This is the basest sentimentality, this is a child's prayer… PATHETIC!" he yelled at her. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors but they are a part of you, and they will never go away!" Loki hit the cell very hard causing Natasha to flinch and even Victoria jumped at the sound she heard. "I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly, intimately in every way he knows you fear! And when he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

"You're a monster!" Natasha said and Victoria could hear the fear in her voice.

Loki let out a wicked laugh. "No you brought the monster."

"So…Banner… that's your play." Natasha said being back to her calm poised self.

"What?" Loki said in a very shocked voice.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." Natasha said into her ear piece just as she looked up at Loki one last time. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Victoria heard Natasha leaving the room so she quickly hid behind the corner so Natasha wouldn't see that she had heard the whole thing. Once she knew it was safe Victoria came back around the corner and looked at the door Natasha just ran out of, sucking in a deep breath Victoria opened the door and walked right in to see Loki still standing there with a dumb found look on his face.

"Agent Matthews have you also come to bargain for Barton's life, if so I thought you should know his girlfriend has already tried and failed." Loki said to Victoria and smirked when he noticed her breath hitch and the mention of girlfriend. "Was that a pang of jealousy I just saw?"

"You are an evil no good monster!" Victoria growled at him.

"I have been told that." Loki said sarcastically. "You have really disappointed Barton, he told me all about Ireland and Patrick."

"Fuck you!" Victoria yelled at him.

"Now, now that's not proper language for a lady." Loki said shaking his head at her. "No wonder Barton likes Agent Romanoff better."

"I don't have to listen to this." Victoria said turning to walk away.

"No you don't my lady but you should." Loki said in a too sweet voice, Victoria stopped walking but didn't turn back to face him. "I personally would have chosen you to stand by my side not her."

"I'm not in the mood for you damn mind games." Victoria said in an equally sweet voice.

"You might not be but my lady it would be much safer for you in here." Loki said but she ignored him.

Just as she walked out of the room and back into the hall there was a loud explosion causing her to fall into one of the walls. All of sudden there was a lot of cluttered talking going on in her ear piece. Victoria quickly climbed to her feet and started running towards the bridge. She had to get there and help out with anything she could do, Victoria headed out of the detention area and decided to cut through the equipment room to get there quicker. Victoria came to sudden stop when she was face to face with Clint just as she heard Fury's voice calling out Clint location over the ear piece.

"Clint what's going on with you? You have to fight this." Victoria said in a very soft voice as she took a step back, she needed to try and keep space between them.

Clint pulled an arrow out then raised his bow and aimed it at her. "Don't move Victoria."

"Clint this isn't you please don't do this." Victoria said just as Barton pulled back and was ready to fire the arrow at her. Victoria ran at him at full speed then tried to drop to the floor as the arrow was released, her move was not quick enough and the arrow cut across her arm as the tip slid by. Victoria felt the sting of the cut as she slid into Barton legs causing him to drop his bow and he fell to the ground next to her. Victoria tried to scramble to her feet to get away from him but he caught her ankle and yanked her back down, Victoria swung her other leg at him trying to kick his head but he caught it before it could make any contact with him. He yanked hard on both of her legs causing her to fall back hitting her head hard on the cat walk. "Clint please don't do this." Victoria pleaded with him as she held her head and her eye site started blur on her. "We are partners you have to fight this, we need you."

"You don't need my help, isn't that what you said." Barton growled at her as he pinned both of her legs under his knee then pulled out a knife. "You can't even do your job right! I'm a threat and you plead with me rather than do what you are trained to do. You don't deserve to be an agent, your pathetic and weak!"

"Get off me now Barton!" Victoria snapped at him as she lifted her torso up towards him to knock him off of her but that was a mistake. Victoria's eyes went wide when she felt the knife he had stab into her side. "Clint!" she said with a groan as tears slid down her face.

"Clint what did you do?" Natasha screamed at him.

Barton let Victoria fall back to the ground as he stood up with the bloody knife still in his hand. Natasha didn't give him a chance to answer her she instantly ran at him, the two of them battled it out with each other. Natasha didn't want to kill Clint but she was pissed. When she could she would glance back at Victoria to make sure she was still breathing. Victoria watched them fight each other as she tried to hold the wound from bleeding. Clint was trying to slash Natasha with the knife until she had no choice but to bite his wrist causing him to drop it. Natasha wrapped her legs around Clint's neck flipping him over and put his arm in a lock while she hit his head off one of the rails. Clint went down hard and when he looked back up at her he almost looked like he had come to his senses.

"Natasha." He breathed out in low voice but she just stepped forward and knocked him out cold.

"Victoria!" Natasha said as she dropped to her knees next to her. "Vicky you gotta stay with me here." Natasha said as she put pressure on the stab wound and Victoria groaned from the pain it caused.

"Clint? Is Clint ok?" Victoria said through gritted teeth.

"Don't worry about Clint you just stay with me." Natasha snapped at her. "Agent Matthews is down in the equipment room." she said into her ear piece.

Victoria looked behind Natasha and saw Clint laying completely still on the ground. "Agent Coulson is down." Fury said into the ear piece.

"We have paramedics on the way to both locations." Another agent said into the ear piece.

"They're here… and they called it, send them to Agent Matthews." Fury said and you could hear the anger and sadness in his voice. "Agent Matthews needs to be top priority, Agent Romanoff is she still breathing?"

"Yes I'm still breathing." Victoria said in low groan into her ear piece.

"You stay with us you hear me Agent Matthews." Fury snapped into the ear piece and she just grunted.

The paramedics were franticly trying to stop the bleeding when Victoria finally loss conciseness. They quickly pulled her on a gurney and ran off to the infirmary, she needed to be rushed into surgery if they were going to have any chance in saving her life. Natasha stood there watching as some of the SHIELD agents pulled Clint off the floor and dragged him off to another room in the infirmary where they strapped him down to the bed. Everything that has happened so far this day was slowly staring to hit Natasha, one of her best friends was in surgery with a stab wound from the other best friend that was completely screwed in the head when he did it and another one of her good friends was now dead and all this was at the hands of Loki. Natasha felt the urge to avenge her friends and give them the justice they deserved.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or its characters but I do own my OC.**

**AN: I would like to thank everyone that has reviewed the last chapter and also like to thank everyone that has added this to their favorites and/or alerts. Enjoy this next chapter, please read and review if you could. Thanks again!**

**Chapter Two:**

Natasha stood next to Clint's bed watching over him as he tried to shake off Loki's mind control. It was hard for her to sit there watching him struggle and not be able to help him but she stood there because she had to keep her mind busy so she wouldn't go crazy worrying about Victoria, who was still in surgery. "Clint you're going to be alright." Natasha said to him softly.

"You know that? Is that what you know? I got… I gotta go in though." Clint said looking over at her. "I gotta flush him out."

"We don't have that long, it's gonna take time." Natasha said as she stood up and walked over to the table and poured a glass of water.

"I don't understand, have you ever had someone take your brain and play?" he asked looking over at her. "Pull you out and send something else in, do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

"You know that I do." Natasha said to him in soft voice.

"Why am I back, how did you get him out?" Clint asked as he looked down at the restraints on his wrist.

"Cognitive recalibration… I hit you really hard in the head." She said smirking at him.

"Thanks." He said as he watched Natasha remove the restraints. "Tasha, how many agents?"

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself Clint, this was Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for." Natasha said as she sat back, she wasn't sure if he remembered what he had done to Victoria and she didn't want to bring it up in case he didn't, he was struggling enough already and that would make things much worse.

"Loki, he got away?" Clint asked as he glanced over at Natasha. He wanted to ask where Victoria was but the last time the two of them talked it was a fight and he thought she was still mad at him because she wasn't sitting here with Natasha.

"Yeah, I don't suppose you know where?"

"I didn't need to know, I didn't ask. He's going to make his play soon though." Clint said looking over at her again. "My memory is sketchy right now but I know it's today." Clint said reaching for the glass of water Natasha had poured.

"We gotta stop him." Natasha said getting to her feet and walked towards the door to look out the window.

Clint watched her closely; he knew there was something wrong with her. "Yeah? Who's we?" Clint said looking at her and Natasha turned back to face him.

"I don't know… whoever is left." Natasha said sounding upset.

"Well if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better I suppose." Clint said trying to soften the mood.

"Now you sound like you." Natasha said smiling at him as she sat down next to him.

"But you don't. You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?" Clint asked as he turned his body slightly to look at her.

"He didn't… I just…" Natasha said looking down at her hands, she couldn't figure out how to tell her best friend that he had almost killed their partner, their friend.

"Natasha." Clint said in a low voice to her, he needed her to talk to him.

"I've been compromised; I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out." Natasha said going against her better judgment and kept the stabbing to herself.

"I don't understand why my memory feels lost but yet I can remember some of the things that have happened." Clint said looking over at her. "I need to remember everything."

"Don't push yourself it will come back just give it some time." Natasha said hoping he would listen.

"I'm gonna go clean myself up." Clint said getting up from the bed and walked into the bathroom. As he looked in the mirror he felt like something was wrong, something was missing and it was pissing him off that he couldn't figure out what it was. He reached for the faucet and noticed a little bit of dried blood on his hand, Clint stood there a few moments looking at it trying to figure out where it came from because he had no open wounds on his hands.

Natasha sat there looking at the bathroom door that Clint just walked in, it hurt to hide this from him and she knew he would be upset with her once he did find out. Natasha was brought out of her thoughts by Steve coming into the room. "Time to go." He said as she took in the fact that once again he was in his full uniform.

"Go where?" Natasha asked as she stood up on her feet.

"I'll tell you on the way, can you fly one of those jet things?" Steve asked.

"I can." Clint said as he came out of the bathroom drying his hands on a towel and Steve was surprised to see him.

Steve quickly looked over at Natasha and she nodded her head at him letting him know Clint was alright. "Does he…" Steve never finished the question when he noticed Natasha quickly shake her head no and Steve knew right away that Clint had no idea about Agent Matthews yet. "You got a suit?" He asked looking back at Clint.

"Yeah." Clint said looking between the two of them trying to figure out what he just missed.

"Then suit up." Steve said as he walked away.

The now formed Avengers walked over to the Quinjet together, Hawkeye and Black Widow walked on the sides as Captain America walked in the center. Once inside the Quinjet a young pilot stood in their way trying to stop them. "You are not authorized to be here…" He said but was cut off by Steve.

"Son… Just don't." Steve said walking past him.

"Tasha where is Victoria?" Clint asked as he walked past the pilot that was leaving, she normally would co-pilot for him. "I haven't seen her."

"Agent Barton, Agent Matthews is still in the infirmary, she just came out…" the young pilot started to say only to be cut off again but this time by Natasha.

"I can handle this, get off the jet." Natasha growled at him and he quickly scurried away. "Clint don't worry about Vicky right now let's just get this over with first." She said knowing this was the worse time to tell him what happened to Victoria.

"We need to get moving." Steve said from further in the jet when he heard what they were talking about. He agreed with the way Natasha felt, this wasn't the right time to say anything to Barton.

"Why is Vic in the infirmary?" Clint asked looking between Steve and Natasha.

"She was hurt but we can talk about this when we get back." Steve said seeing that Natasha was having a hard time with answering him.

Nick Fury stood on the bridge of the helicarrier looking over everyone as they worked hard at trying to get things up and running again on the ship. Just as he was about to turn around and walk away he heard a loud screech and when he looked out the window he saw Ironman flying off followed by the Quinjet.

"They found it, get our communications back up. Do whatever you have to do, I want eyes on everything." Fury barked out. "Agent Hill I also want an update on Agent Matthews."

"Yes sir." Agent Hill said moving to tell a few of the guys what to do before leaving the bridge and personally going down to the infirmary to get and Update on Victoria herself. "Doctor, Director Fury would like an update on Agent Matthews." She had asked him once she located the doctor.

"Agent Matthews has lost a lot of blood from the stab wound causing her to black out at the scene. We had to take her into surgery right away so we could repair all the damage the knife did to her organs, it was touch and go but she came out of surgery about an half hour ago." The doctor said as he wiped his hand across his forehead. "Agent Matthews also has a serious concussion from banging her head off the catwalk, with her still not waking up we aren't sure if it's due to the loss of blood or the head injury. The cut to her upper arm which looks like it came from one of Agent Barton's arrows took about nine stitches."

"Thank you Doctor, please keep us updated on her condition." Maria said as she walked away to give Director Fury the information she just received. After speaking to Fury his mood had gotten a lot worse, he was truly hoping she would be awake and talking before the Avengers returned and now that didn't look like it would be happening. "Director, I did ask the doctor to keep me inform on her condition."

"Good, once you have some good news let me know." Fury said turning away and walked closer to the window. Closing his one good eye Fury stood there willing his fallen agent to wake up. 'Victoria you need to wake your ass up, this is not good for this team or your partners.' He thought to himself before opening his eye again.

The fight in New York has finally ended and the Avengers closed down the portal successfully stopping Loki. The Avengers along with Loki had returned back to the Helicarrier for their debriefing. Once everyone was done they were leaving the room to make arrangements to send Thor along with Loki back to Asgard with the tesseract. When the briefing room was almost cleared out Fury called for Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff to stay.

"Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff can I have a word with the two of you?" Fury said and they both turned to him stopping from going any further. "Agent Matthews has slipped into a coma after her surgery. We are doing all we can for her."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Clint asked looking between his partner and the director with a confused look on his face. "What happened to Victoria?"

"Agent Romanoff you didn't tell him what happened?" Fury asked Natasha and she shook her head no.

"Tell me what?" Clint snapped looking at Natasha. "Natasha what are you hiding from me?"

"Clint when I came looking for you… I was too late." Natasha said shaking her head at him.

"Too late for what?" he snapped. "Don't give me any bullshit run around just say what you have to. What were you too late for?"

"Agent Barton, while you were under Loki's mind control there was a fight between you and Agent Matthews resulting…" Fury hesitated before finishing what he had no choice but to tell Clint. "Resulting in you stabbing her."

Clint looked down at his hands as he stumbled back a little bit, the dried blood he couldn't figure out where it came from on his hands earlier was hers. Clint closed his eyes and in that brief moment it all came rushing back to him the arrow that skimmed pass her arm cutting her as she ran at him, the fighting between the two of them mostly on his end, him making her bang her head off the ground, the words he said to her then the knife he held tightly in his hand as he had plunged it deep into her side. Clint brought both his hands up to the back of his neck and held on tightly to it as he let out a loud scream of anger. At that moment Clint felt like he had just torn his own heart out and was trying his hardest to breathe through it all.

"Clint it's not your fault, it wasn't you." Natasha said as she tried to grab his arm but he yanked it away from her. "Clint it was all Loki's fault."

"That's where you're wrong Natasha, it was me." Clint snapped at her as Steve and Tony came running in the room. "Why the hell didn't you tell me about this?"

"Sir is everything alright in here?" Steve asked as he glanced around the room looking for the trouble he thought was in here.

"Everything is alright Captain Rogers." Fury said to him as he moved closer to Barton. "Agent Barton we need you to calm down."

"Everything is not alright." Clint growled between gritted teeth. "I tried to kill Victoria when I stabbed her that is not alright."

"Oh… I take it you told Hawkeye about Agent Matthews." Tony said as he glanced between everyone there. "I'll take that as my time to leave, I'll be back when you are ready to send Thor and his adopted brother back to wherever they came from." Tony said backing out of the room with his hands up.

"I want Loki's blood." Clint snapped as he tried to exit the room but Steve and Director Fury stepped in his way before he could get out. "I deserve to do this, he deserves to die."

"My brother will pay for his crimes when we return to Asgard, this I swear to you." Thor said stepping up behind Fury and Steve. "I didn't get the pleasure of formally meeting Agent Matthews but from the stories I have heard since our return tells me she is a wonderful lady."

"Your brother is the reason I hurt her and he has to pay for that." Clint snapped at Thor.

"And he will." Thor said to him but it wasn't enough to calm Clint down.

"Agent Barton you must stay away from the prisoner." Fury snapped at him.

"Fine!" Clint growled at him as he turned and walked the other way.

Clint slowly walked down to the infirmary to check on Victoria himself but once he got to the door he couldn't bring himself to go inside. He listened as the machines beeped slowly and watched as her chest rose then fell again. He wasn't quite sure how long he had been standing there watching her through the window as countless doctors and nurses had come and gone to check her vitals, always informing him there was no change when they would come back out of the room.

He heard someone walking up behind him and assumed it was another doctor coming to check on Victoria again. "Clint I have watched you on the security footage just standing there for the last three hours." Natasha said as she walked up next to him and peered into the room herself. "Go inside and talk to her… I have read somewhere that it sometimes helps them try to pull through, maybe it will help if she heard your voice."

"And what should I say to her… Hey I'm sorry for trying to kill." He said sarcastically. "I don't think that would work as well as you think."

"It's a start." Natasha snapped at him and he shook his head as he walked away from her. "Clint after I knocked you out I went to her side and do you want to know what her first words to me were." Natasha snapped at him. "Clint, is Clint ok. Vicky was bleeding out but yet she was more worried about you." Natasha watched as he stopped for a moment dropping his head low then shook it before walking away again. She stood there for a few moments watching his retreating back before going into the room herself. Natasha walked over to Victoria's bed and sat down next to her on it. "Damn it Vicky you need to wake up, we need you… he needs you."

"I truly am sorry for what has happened to your friend." Natasha heard Thor say from behind her and she quickly wiped the tear from her face as she turned around. "I have come here to put an end to Loki's schemes and the price your people had to paid for his mistakes could never be repaid."

"Victoria will wake up I know it, it will just be when she's ready to. She is as stubborn as Agent Barton and I." Natasha said as she backed away from the bed. "If I were you I would keep an eye on Loki. They don't call Clint Hawkeye for no reason and he may try to go after him from a distance so no one could see him."

"I will keep that in mind." Thor said stepping to the side when Natasha went to exit the door. "You don't mind if I sit with Agent Matthews for a few moments. I would like to give her my apologies for what my brother has done."

"I don't mind at all, stay as long as you would like." Natasha said to him with a smile. "And you can call her Victoria she likes that better than Agent Matthews." Thor nodded at her as she walked away and he walked over to sit in the chair next to her bed.

Thor was amazed at how much this one agent meant to so many and how just by lying here in this bed she was slowly working her way into the hearts of Captain Rogers, Dr. Banner and even Tony Stark. He was able to see the pain in Agent Barton's face and could hear it in Agent Romanoff's voice. Thor stood there for a little bit longer than he had planned and just as he stood on his feet again he held her hand in his.

"I am sorry for what my brother has done, Agent Romanoff was correct when she said this was all Loki's fault and I truly hope you could forgive Agent Barton… for he had no control over what he had done to you."

It has been a little over a week since the attack on New York and Victoria still had not woken up. The Avengers were now standing in the middle of a blocked area they had set up for Thor to take Loki back to Asgard. Loki stood there handcuffed and muzzled as the rest of the Avengers said bye to Thor, once it was all done and over everyone slowly went their separate ways. Clint quickly signed on for another mission in Germany while Natasha went to Morocco to track a mark and Maria Hill had promised to call her if there were any changes with Victoria.

Fury had just got done talking with the council when Maria Hill approached him. "Sir, how does it work now? They've gone their separate ways, some pretty extremely far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?" she asked him with a curious tone to her voice.

"They'll come back." Fury said sure of himself.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked.

"I am." He said in a matter of fact voice.

"Why?" Maria asked.

"Because we will need them to and once Agent Matthews wakes up the trio will reunite." Fury said walking away from her.

It has now been six months since the attack on New York and Victoria still hasn't woken up, the doctor figure out that the hit to her head was worse than they initially had thought. Tony Stark being the only Avenger near her has made it a point to check on Agent Matthews weekly. Fury didn't like him being around so much but he kept that to himself as much as he could considering he was the only one other than Natasha that has come to visited her. Tony was walking down the hall to Victoria's room when he was crossing paths with Director Fury.

"Director." Tony said nodding his head at Fury. "No change in the pretty lady's status?"

"No I just left her room and I talked with her doctors they don't know how much longer they can keep her here like this." Fury said coming to stop in front of Tony Stark. "We are going to send her to another facility in a few days."

"Are you fucking serious?" Tony asked shaking his head in disbelief. "All the technology on this floating tin can and you want to ship her out to some unknown place. If it comes to that I will take her with me." Tony didn't bother standing there long enough for a response he just continued his walk to her room and walked in closing the door behind himself. "I am getting tired of coming here and sitting with you and talking out my ass, open your damn eyes and talk back to me already." Tony snapped at her as he sat down next to her bed and held onto her hand, this had become a routine for the last few months. He was hoping she would get mad and would yell at him for talking to her like that. "I'm the one that always wants the attention and here you are stilling my thunder… no offense Thor." Tony said looking up at the ceiling as if Thor could hear him. "One of these days Victoria you will wake up and tell me to shut the hell up and stop bitching at you… They want to send you somewhere else but I'm not letting that happen. I got an open room in my place you can have, I'm sure Pepper would be fine with it." Just as he closed his mouth to take a deep breath Tony felt her fingers move and he quickly stood up next to her. "Victoria can you hear me… squeeze my hand again if you can." Tony said looking down at their hands but nothing happened and just as he was about give up she squeezed it again this time a little harder than the last. Tony quickly hit the call button on the wall with his free hand.

"Can I help you with something Mr. Stark?" the voice said through the speaker.

"Send in the doctor now, Agent Matthews has moved her hand." He snapped at the speaker then looked back down at Victoria's face and she was opening her eyes slowly. "Hey beautiful… wait you can't tell Pepper I said that to you ok." Tony said with a nervous laugh as she reached up to grab the tube that was down her throat and Tony quickly pushed her hand away. "Hey don't do that the doctor should be here soon to take that out." Tony said as the doctor ran in the room and he looked up at her. "What the hell took you so long?"

"I got here once I was told Agent Matthews moved her hand." The doctor said to Tony as she walked over to the other side of the bed and saw Victoria looking up at her with wide eyes and she went to reach for the tube again this time it was the doctor that stopped her. "I'm going to take that out for you in a moment, just relax. Mr. Stark, could you please step out into the hall while I check Agent Matthews?"

"Ok." Tony said as he went to release her hand but she held onto his tighter. Victoria was scared she didn't know who this doctor was and even though she barely knew Tony he was a familiar face. "I'm gonna take the fact that she's not letting go of my hand as an invitation to stay." Tony said looking up at the doctor.

The doctor shook her head but went about her duties of assessing Victoria's vitals and removing the tube. Once Victoria was through the coughing phase the doctor asked her a question to see how her memory was. "Agent Matthews, do you know who I am?"

"With all due respect doc how long have you been here on the floating tin can?" Tony asked her and the doctor glared at him. "It's just a simple question, no need to get mad at me."

"Five months, why would that matter?" she said to him sounding agitated, Tony had that effect on them because he was constantly questioning if there were doing everything right with her.

"My dear doctor you just asked someone that has been in a coma for six months if she knew who you are and you have only been here for five months." Tony said sarcastically to her as he turned back to face Victoria. "Sweetheart… ok that's another name you can't tell Pepper I called you." Tony said smiling at her. "Do you know who I am?"

"Were you serious when you said I was in coma for six months?" Victoria asked looking between the two people standing by her, her voice came out very hoarse sounding.

"Not the answer I was looking for." He said smirking at her.

"You are Tony Stark or Ironman whichever one you choose to go by right now." She said between coughs and Tony reached behind himself to grab a glass of water and handed it to her.

"Her memory is perfectly fine if she knows who I am and can be sarcastic about it." Tony said smirking at the doctor.

"Agent Matthews it is nice to see you awake and among the living again." Fury said as he entered the room. "I see Tony Stark has finally annoyed you enough to wake up, I know he has annoyed us."

"Not funny." Tony said as he sat down in the chair. "It was my charm that convinced her to open her eyes."

"Director she needs her rest." The doctor said to Fury and Tony let out a humorless laugh causing the doctor to glare at him again.

"Are you serious, she just slept for six straight months and you want her to rest more." Tony said shaking his head.

"Director what happened?" Victoria's raspy voice asked and all eyes turned back to her. "The Tesseract, Loki and Clint?"

"All is well on earth again, thanks to the Avengers." Tony said to her.

"The tesseract and Loki has been taken back to Asgard by Thor and Clint is back to his old self." Fury said glaring at Tony then turned back to her. "We haven't been able to get a hold of Clint or Natasha yet but I'm sure once we do they will be back here."

"Do you remember what happen to you?" Tony asked as he leaned forward in the chair.

"Yes, I was going through the equipment room and I ran into Clint…" Victoria said as she pulled her body into a semi sitting position. "Clint and I fought then he… then he stabbed me."

"You do realize he wasn't in control of what he was doing?" Fury said moving closer to her bed. "Loki did something to his head and was controlling him."

"If you had heard the things he said to me you wouldn't believe that." Victoria said as she looked away from Fury.

"How long before we could get Agent Matthews back on the field where she belongs?" Fury asked the doctor and Tony started shaking his head again. "What is your problem now Stark?"

"The girl has been up all of twenty minutes and you're already asking when she could get back to work." Tony said standing up.

"Director that could take some time, there is so much we need to do and some tests to run." The doctor said getting Fury's attention. "She needs therapy also."

"I could bring in some very good doctors to help her through the process." Tony said and Fury glared at him.

"We have doctors here that can do that." Fury said to him.

"Not the best and that's what I'm bringing in." Tony said walking away as he pulled his phone out not giving Fury a chance to refuse again.

Fury had Victoria moved to one of the ground bases so she could start rehab. It had been a week since she woke up and the doctors Tony had brought in have work with her around the clock because she refused to depend on people so she wanted her independence back. Things were nowhere near easy for her but she fought enough that she was finally able to gain the strength in her legs and was able to move around on her own, she wasn't at a hundred percent but enough for her to feel independent. Natasha had gotten word of Victoria waking up and once she got to a secured line she called her. The two friends had talked like nothing had happened neither wanting to bring up the incident. Victoria was in the middle of therapy when Tony walked in the gym.

"My one and only favorite agent, how are you doing?" he asked walking up to her with a smirk and she just shrugged her shoulders at him, the two had become good friends so quick. Tony Stark has come in every day checking on her progress and to help push her hard, he has even brought Pepper with a few times and the two of them worked with Victoria. "I'll take that as things are not hard enough for you… should I go get Captain Rogers to come and train with you or would you prefer me as Ironman?" Tony asked as he sat on a bench across from where she was working out.

"Neither, I didn't say it was easy." She said standing up. "I just feel worn out all the time now."

"Do you want to go back to laying in a bed all day? We could arrange that." Tony asked her, he already knew what her answer was because every time she was about to give up he would ask her that and she would fight more. "I can have Fury prep your old room back on the tin can."

"I am not giving up!" she snapped at him as she stood up and walked over by him snatching the bottle of water from next to him and walked away slowly. "I am tired of seeing the same three rooms every single day. I'm either here in the gym, my room, or the kitchen. I need to do something different, I need to get away from here."

"Then go in another room." Tony said sarcastically and she glared at him over her shoulder. "Fine, let's go."

"Where?" she questioned turning to face him as he stood up and walked towards her.

"We can start by you going to take a shower and put some decent clothes on because I don't think Pepper would be happy with me bringing a half naked woman home." Tony said as he walked pass her and she started walking to keep up with him. "You and Pepper are going to need to shop today because the three of us have a party to go to tonight."

"Are you serious?" Victoria asked him as they came to a stop in front of her room.

"You said you're tired of the same three rooms now I'm giving you a chance to see more… unless of course you want to stay here." Tony said gesturing around them.

"No I want to go, just give me thirty minutes."

"You got twenty." He said smirking at her and Victoria rolled her eyes at him as she quickly went into the room. Twenty minutes later Tony was banging on the door screaming it was time to go. "Let's go we are on the clock here."

"Damn it Tony you're lucky I like you." she said yanking the door opened then followed him down the hall to the helipad where his helicopter was waiting for them.

Once they arrived at Stark Tower Pepper was waiting for Victoria and they took off to the store right away. The two ladies spent a couple of hours shopping for the right gown for Victoria because she was not comfortable wearing anything that showed the scar on her arm just yet. Victoria didn't want to answer questions on where it came from, she wanted one night free of anything to do with SHIELD. She finally agreed on a black floor length gown with sleeves that came just below the elbow and a slit on the left leg that went up to her mid-thigh. It had been so long since she was dressed this formal and she was enjoying the feel of it.

Tony was going over some data trying to ignore the calls he was getting from Fury because he was sure Fury was pissed once he found out Victoria had left with him. "Sir Director Fury said that you must take his call now, it is of importance." Jarvis said to him.

"Put him through, I might as well just get this over with." Tony said as the call popped on the screen. "What can I do for you Director?"

"Stark we got some reports that a very wanted and important mark we are trying to track will be at that gala you are attending. I have Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton doing some recon on the party site and we think we could take him quietly with your help." Fury said and Tony closed his eyes trying to think of what to do because he had Victoria going to the same gala with him and Pepper. "Stark I don't like how quiet you are being right now."

"I don't think this is good idea." Tony finally said to him. "We should just pick another party to ambush the guy at."

"Now why the hell would I do that if I know where he will be tonight?" Fury snapped at Tony. "Barton and Romanoff will be there."

"Agent Matthews will be at the party and I don't think she is quite ready to be back fighting crime yet."

"What the hell are you talking about; Agent Matthews is at ground base two." Fury said as Tony shook his head no and had a small smirk on his face. "Do not tell me you took her from the base without my knowledge."

"Then I won't tell you that but Agent Matthews will be at that gala."

"Stark you are getting on the last of my nerves; you better keep a good eye on her."

"I got two good eyes so I will keep both of them on her." Tony said trying to hide his smirk.

Fury didn't bother replying to his remark, he disconnected the call and sent Agent Hill to look for Agent Romanoff. This wasn't something he had expected, when the ground base called he thought they were calling him to complain about Stark agitating Matthews so he had declined the call and forgot to find out what they had needed. Barton has steered clear of Matthews and Fury knew this would be problem.

"Director, you needed to see me?" Natasha said walking onto the bridge and over to Fury.

"Agent Romanoff we have a problem with tonight's mission." Fury said to her when she was fully standing in front of him. "Agent Matthews is going to be at the gala tonight."

"How? I thought she was still going through rehab." Natasha said sounding shocked. "I thought she wasn't ready for this."

"Stark picked her up today and she's at Stark Tower."

"Who is a Stark Tower?" Clint asked walking in on their conversation.

"Agent Matthews." Fury said looking over at Natasha then back at Clint. "She will be at the gala tonight."

"Wait a minute what the hell is Vic doing with Tony Stark, when I checked on her this morning she was at ground base two." Clint said to them, until now he had never told anyone that he had been going to the base everyday checking on her. Victoria herself had not known that either. "I saw Vic going into the gym for therapy."

"You've been down to ground base two?" Fury asked sounding confused.

"When I got some free time I go down there to see how things are going with her."

"Tony is supposed to keep his eyes on her so I want the two of you to try and be discrete about apprehending the mark, I don't want her to know there is trouble there." Fury said looking at his two agents and could tell Clint was mad as hell.

Natasha and Clint walked away from Fury and once they were around the corner Natasha grabbed Clint's arm stopping him. "Why didn't you tell me that you were going down to see Vicky?"

"Because I don't want to be questioned on why I was going." Clint said as he slowly pulled his arm away.

"I would have not asked you why but now I want to know why you would hide it if I had been trying to get you down there in the first place and you would tell me no."

"I'm the reason Vic got hurt and I wanted to make sure she was doing better." He said and Natasha raised her eyebrow at him, he shook his head knowing where her mind was going. "Don't read more into it Natasha, we were friends and that was it."

"Were? Was?" Natasha asked shocked by his choice of words. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"We need to get ready so just drop it." Clint said turning and walking away from her. Clint couldn't explain things to anyone about how he felt for Victoria because he didn't understand it either. He was a trained assassin that knew all too well feeling ruin things and didn't work well with the job they did.

It was late evening when Tony Stark arrived at the gala with Pepper and Victoria, the three of them walked around the party talking with several people but Victoria had notice how Tony had kept looking towards the entrance and she was wondering why. Not too long later he moved away from them after a gentlemen had walked in, seeing Victoria was a trained agent she saw all the signs that there was some kind trouble and Tony was hiding it from her. Victoria talked with Pepper and few people while trying to keep an eye on Tony when he and the guy started talking very tensely she excused herself. She went out one of the side doors to come around the front and get a closer ear on what was going on between them without being seen, just as she was creeping up on the door someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth while pulling her back away, whoever had her was too strong and she was having a hard time getting out of his grip.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or its characters but I do own my OC.**

**AN: I would like to thank everyone that has reviewed the last chapter and also like to thank everyone that has added this to their favorites and/or alerts. Enjoy this next chapter, please read and review if you could. Thanks again!**

**Chapter Three:**

Victoria was in panic mode she was trying her hardest to move the hand that was covering her mouth, she was about to freak out when the person the held her leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Victoria relax and stay quiet, it's just me." Clint whispered in her ear as he moved his hand from her mouth but kept the other arm wrapped around her waist holding her close to him, she tried her best to relax but it wasn't easy considering the last time she saw Clint he had stabbed her. "I knew you would pick up on something going wrong but we have this under control." Clint whispered again in her ear.

"Clint, what is going on here?" Victoria asked him in a shaky voice and she knew he could hear it.

"Just go back to the party and stay near Pepper." Clint said as he released her and she turned to face him for the first time, he wanted to apologize to her and hold her again but he knew this wasn't the time or place for that. "You shouldn't be here."

"Barton, Stark and our mark are moving towards your way take cover quick." Natasha's voice said into the ear piece when she saw the two of them moving towards Clint and Victoria's location from where she was hiding. "They should be turning the corner in about twenty feet."

"Shit!" Clint growled as he grabbed Victoria's hand. "We gotta move now before we are spotted."

"Tell me what's going on and what needs to be done." She said as he pulled her into a door way to hide.

"We need this guy tonight and we need him alive for Fury, if this guy knows we are here for him he will fight and bringing him in alive may then be out of the window."

"I'll distract him, just please don't take long on doing whatever you guys need to do." Victoria said as she started to move away from him but he grabbed her and pulled her back towards him. "Clint just let me do this."

"No, you are unarmed and shit could go wrong." Clint growled in a low voice.

"Between you, Natasha and Tony being here I will be fine." Victoria said as she pulled her arm away from him.

"Tony?" Clint hissed at her. "You and Stark are on a first name bases now?"

"Tony has been by my side since the beginning so yes we are." She snapped at him in a low voice. "Now quit stalling me and let me do what I am trained to do."

"Vic…" Clint began to say but Victoria quickly stepped out into the hall before he could finish. "Fuck! Natasha keep an eye on Victoria she is using herself as a distraction." Clint growled into the ear piece and was pissed Victoria was no longer in his eye site, he hated being on ground level and not being able to see everything but he had hoped to get her out of there before this had gone down.

"What the hell is she doing?" Natasha snapped watching Victoria move closer to the two men walking her way. Natasha knew Victoria could hold her own but she was worried about whether or not she was ready for this. "Clint I have her in sight."

Tony's eyes went wide when he spotted Victoria walking towards him and the General as she pulled her phone out of her clutch hoping to make it look like a recorder of some kind. "Mr. Stark, I am a reporter with the New York Times and I was wondering if you had some time for a few questions?" she said coming to a stop in front of them. "Hello." She said looking over at the general and giving him a small smile.

"Mr. Stark we were discussing some private business we don't have time for this nonsense." The guy said with a thick Russian accent.

"Yes we were General Grekov." Tony said to him as he turned towards Victoria with a glare on his face. "Um… Ms.?"

"It's Ms. James and I promise this won't take long at all." Victoria said to him with a soft smile. "My editor Mr. Clinton would be upset if I come back to the office with nothing, I am so sorry General I promise this won't take long. Just a few questions please."

"I really can't turn down a pretty lady like you, General do you mind?" Tony said turning to face him. "She can ask a few questions while we walk then be on her way."

The general just grunted at them and they started walking towards where Victoria had left Clint waiting. Just as they were passing the doorway a dart shot out and hit the general in the throat and Tony caught him before he hit the floor. Clint came out and Natasha came running down the hall as Tony turned to face Victoria with a glare on his face.

"What the hell is your problem?" Tony snapped at her. "You could have been hurt!"

"Do you have any idea how bad that could have gone?" Clint snapped at her.

"Why don't the two of you back off!" Natasha snapped at them. "Vicky did what she was trained to do and did it well."

"I am not weak, I know what the hell I was doing." Victoria snapped at them as she turned and started to walk away from them.

"Where the hell are you going?" Tony yelled towards her.

"Back to the party, I'm in need of a drink." She said to him as she glanced over her shoulder at them. "Tony are you coming back or are you leaving with Natasha and Agent Barton."

"Oh… I could really use a drink… you two got this right?" Tony said handing the slumped man over to Clint and Clint glared at him. "Tell Fury I'll see him tomorrow."

Clint stood there in a rage as he watched Victoria and Stark walk back to the party quietly talking to each other. He could feel the jealousy of their friendship eating at him, it wasn't supposed to be like that. Natasha could see the anger in Clint and got worried about how this was going to affect him.

Natasha and Clint had loaded General Grekov on the Quinjet and took off back to the helicarrier with their prisoner. Clint was in a bad mood and Natasha knew why and was determined to get him to talk to her about it. "Clint what's on your mind?"

"Nothing, I just want to get this over with because I need some damn rest already." Clint said focusing on the sky in front of him but he knew what she was up to. "Natasha I told you to drop it."

"I am not going to drop it anymore, the two of you have feelings for each other." she snapped at him and he just grunted. "I see how Vicky looks at you and I can see how much it bothered you when she walked away with Stark just now."

"Natasha leave it alone there isn't shit going on between us." Clint said to her. "Some things are better left untouched."

"I will leave it alone if you tell me right now that you don't have deep feeling for her." Natasha said as they approached the carrier and landed. "You wouldn't go near Victoria's room when she was in a coma and I cannot get you in the same room with her since she woke up but yet you were sneaking down to check on Victoria and didn't even tell her you were doing it."

"I wasn't sneaking, just because I didn't tell you does not mean anything." Clint said getting up from his seat. "Let's just get this guy in the detention area and brief Director Fury."

"You can't keep avoiding me but I'm gonna let this drop for now." Natasha said getting up to open the back hatch, there were armed SHIELD agents standing there waiting for the prisoner.

Back at the gala Tony and Pepper were dancing with each other and Victoria was having a drink while some guy talked to her about something she wasn't even paying any mind to. She just nodded and smiled at all the appropriate times to make it look like she was interested but her mind was on Clint not the current conversation. When he got mad at her for helping out all she could think about was him calling her weak and pathetic.

Tony noticed she wasn't paying any more attention to the guy talking to her, looking at her he knew she was upset about something. "Pepper, let me have this next dance with Victoria." Tony said pulling out of the hold to look her in the face. "She looks upset and I think I know why."

"Tony whatever you do don't make her more upset." Pepper scolded him and he looked at her shocked.

"I would never do that." He said in shocked voice as he grabbed his chest in mocked hurt. "Why must you think so little of me?"

"You know exactly why." she said giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "Now play nice, I'm going to go talk with a few people."

Pepper walked away while Tony walked over to Victoria. "May I have this dance?" Tony asked cutting the guy off from whatever he was saying to her and she smiled at him. "Sorry my man but a pretty lady needs to be dancing not standing here listening to stories."

"Mr. Stark I was just telling Ms. James about…" was all the guy could get out before Tony cut him off again.

"Nope still not interested." Tony said to the guy as he turned to Victoria. "Ms. James… Can I have this dance?"

"It would be my pleasure." She said grabbing Tony's hand and he led her out to the dance floor. "Thanks for the save, that guy just wouldn't shut up and I have no idea what he was talking about."

"So Agent Matthews when did you change your name to Ms. James?" Tony asked her sarcastically.

"I didn't want the guy to have my real name so I figure I would stick with Ms. James. I think it had a nice ring to it." She said smiling at him.

"Good call Agent Matthews." Tony said smirking at her as they danced. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Nothing, why do you ask that?" she asked him defensively.

"Victoria sweetheart for being a spy, you are not very good at lying to me." Tony said trying to be a smartass but ended up getting a completely different response then he had expected.

Victoria pulled out the hold they had with each other and quickly walked away from Tony, she quickly moved pass Pepper and out the door to the balcony coming to a stop at the railing. Pepper watched as Victoria left the room then turned to glare at Tony who was still standing in the middle of the dance floor shocked. Once he got over it he started to go towards the way Victoria had gone but Pepper stepped in front of him before he could go out the door.

"Tony Stark what did you say to her?" Pepper snapped at him. "I told you not to upset her more than she was."

"I have no idea what I said, I thought we were having a good start over there." Tony said shaking his head at her. "I need to get to the bottom of this."

"No you don't!" Pepper snapped at him in a low voice.

"Yeah I do… wait alcohol always helps at time like this." Tony said as he turned away from Pepper and walked to the bar and got two drinks then quickly moved around Pepper who had followed him and went out to the balcony slowly walking towards Victoria. "Alcohol always helps." he said handing her the drink and when she turned to face him he saw the tears in her eyes as she grabbed the drink. "Vicky what's wrong sweetheart, did I do something or say something wrong?"

"It was what you said." Victoria said as she wiped the tears away then took a drink from the glass.

"I was just joking with you, I didn't mean it." Tony said in a remorseful voice. "You're one of the best agents I have met."

"Tony you barely know me and you haven't even seen what I do on the field." Victoria said smiling a little at him.

"Hey six months sitting next to your bed while you slept was plenty of time to hack into Fury's data base so I read everything there is to know about you." Tony said smirking at her. "A one sided conversation is no fun so I kept myself busy. You wouldn't answer my questions so I answered them myself."

"So you read about Ireland?"

"Yeah…? It was a mistake and you lived so let it go." Tony said shrugging his shoulders at her. "You're not perfect but you are great at what you do. What does that have to do with this?"

"When Clint was under Loki's mind control he told me I was weak, pathetic and didn't deserve to be an agent."

"Oh… I see." Tony said sounding shocked as he downed the rest of his drink and took the little she had left in her glass and finished that one too. "I think we need to get some more drinks I'll be right back." Tony said turning away with both glasses and went back to the bar, he needed a few minutes to think about what she had just said to him and more drinks was good excuse to get away for a minute.

Pepper spotted him coming in so she quickly went over to him. "Did you apologize to her?"

"It wasn't me this time, Agent Barton is the one that upset her." Tony said grabbing the two drinks that was placed in front of him.

"Now explain to me how Agent Barton can do that if he is not here." Pepper said to him and he smirked.

"I will explain it all to you but that will have to wait." Tony said giving her a quick kiss and went back out to the balcony.

Tony and Victoria spoke out there for another hour, she told him about Ireland and the fight between her and Clint before he left to guard the tesseract. After hearing all that Tony could plainly see how much Victoria cared for Barton. Victoria knew she was letting her guard down with Tony by telling him everything but it felt good to her to let it all out. A little while later Tony dropped Pepper off at Stark Tower before taking Victoria back to ground base two. The helicopter landed on the helipad and when they got there they were greeted by Fury, Hill, Natasha and Clint standing there waiting.

Victoria leaned close to Tony to talk to him over the roaring of the helicopter. "It looks like one of is in trouble." She said smiling at him.

"No not one I think we are both in trouble." Tony said back to her with a smirk on his face.

Victoria held her dress close to her in an attempt to keep it from flying up and once they were far enough from the helicopter and closer to the waiting firing squad she let her dress fall to the ground again. "Hello Director Fury." Victoria said to him and he just nodded at her.

"We need to talk… all of us." Fury said turning and walking away.

"Is he pissed at me or Tony?" Victoria asked Natasha in low voice as they followed behind him.

"Both of you." Natasha said looking over at her. "He is pissed at Stark for taking you from here without the clearance and at you for getting involved with the mission when you haven't been cleared to do so yet."

"I wasn't in any immediate danger." Victoria said shaking her head. "All of you were there the whole time."

"Clint and I both tried to tell him it was under control but he is just worried about you." Natasha said as Victoria looked over at Clint but he was looking forward.

The six of them went into one of the briefing rooms to talk, Fury was pissed and they all stood there quiet listening to him yell except Tony who kept irritating Fury with his smart remarks. Once Tony had enough of Fury he excused himself and left with a promise to come back to irritate Fury more another day. Once Tony was gone Fury seemed calmer. "Agent Matthews I am going to have Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton stay to finish helping with the remainder of your therapy. I think it's time to step it up and get you back on the field as soon as possible."

"Yes sir… that is exactly what I want." Victoria said to him.

"Get some sleep Agent Matthews, you will be getting up very early tomorrow." Fury said as Victoria stood up and left the room. "Agent Romanoff don't hold anything back with her, get her at a hundred percent as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." Natasha said walking out.

"Barton keep your eyes on everything here." Fury said as Clint was about to walk out. "I haven't been able to brief you as of late due to all the work going on but we think there is threat."

"What kind of threat are we talking about?" Clint said turning to face Fury fully.

"Patrick O'Dell." Fury said getting Clint's full attention.

"He is dead, I checked his body myself. How the hell is he a threat if Victoria killed him?"

"His brother has taken over and knows all about Agent Matthews… we have an agent working undercover near there and he heard people asking about her where abouts and they could find her."

"How are we dealing with this threat?" Clint asked as he felt the urge to hit someone.

"We put word out there that she is in Washington and still in a coma hoping to set a trap, I have Captain Rogers in Washington keeping me posted on all that is going on out there." Fury said in a stern voice. "If anything hits we will let you know but until then don't let her out of your site."

"Yes sir." Clint said walking away and went towards Victoria's room.

It has been a few days since Natasha and Clint started working with Victoria, it was supposed to be a down day for them but Victoria was in the gym doing some lite work outs while Natasha worked on some files Fury sent down to her. Clint walked into the gym and watched from a distance while she worked at hitting the punching bag. So far there hasn't been any movement in Washington and that wasn't making anyone feel better. Rogers had decided to take a trip to Ireland to see if he could find anything out about Patrick's brother so they would know what they were dealing with.

"You do know what a down day is don't you?" Clint asked from where he was leaning against the wall. Other than working with her in therapy and workouts the two of them hadn't talked much and he was hoping to change that right now. "You need to let your body rest sometimes."

Victoria stopped mid punch and turned to see Clint standing there. "Yeah I do but if I am going to have any chance against Phillip I can't afford a down day."

Clint's eyes went wide when she mentioned Patrick's brother, no one had said anything to her about that. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Barton don't play stupid with me, I know you are better than that." Victoria said as she pulled the gloves off her hands. "Tony has showed me few ways of hacking into the systems around here."

"So what's up with you and Stark?" Clint asked changing the subject as he was moving closer to her.

"We are just friends that's it… are you going to help me or are you going to just stand there and watch?" Victoria asked him as she moved over to the mats.

"Vic you know I had my reasons for not being around." Clint said as he shrugged his jacket off and moved over to the mats. "I know I should…" was all Clint got out when Victoria swung at him but he ducked before it connected with his face. "What the hell Victoria I wasn't ready." He snapped at her as she swung again and this time he blocked it while pushing her back.

"Wasn't it you that said you should always be ready for an attack." She snapped at him as she kicked him in his side making him stumble back a little. "Keep your head in the game and never let your emotions cloud your judgment."

"I know what the hell I said to you." he growled at her as he swung at her and she blocked it but Victoria didn't see his leg come up hitting her in the gut and she stumbled back a little. "You really want to take this at full force right now?"

"Why hold back?" she snapped at him as she swung again and once again he blocked her hit.

"You were stabbed and in a coma." He growled at her as he swung at her and she blocked his hit.

"I had six months to heal." She snapped at him. "I'm not weak and pathetic. I might not be an Avenger but I can hold my own."

"We need to talk about that." Clint said sweeping her leg from under her knocking her to the floor and she quickly jumped back to her feet. "Vic I wasn't in the right state of mind."

"Yeah that might be true but the words were loud and clear when you said them." She said swinging at him and connected with his gut.

Natasha decided to take a break from the files and walked down to the gym to see what Victoria was doing. When she got to the door and opened it she was shocked to see Clint and Victoria fighting each other. Natasha stood there holding the door open and watched as Clint caught Victoria's leg in mid swing then swept her other leg out from under her. When Victoria's back hit the mat Clint released the leg he was holding and she quickly swept both of his legs out from under him and he fell down next to her. Natasha shook her head as she backed out of the room and left them to work this out on their own.

"Vic I'm sorry for everything." Clint said as he laid there next to her breathing heavy as he looked up at the ceiling and Victoria was doing the same. "I said some pretty shitty things to you and I didn't mean any of it."

"I know you didn't mean it but it still hurt, of all the things you and Nat trained me for the one thing you guys forgot to teach was being prepared for an attack from your own friend." Victoria said looking over at him. "I couldn't hurt you Clint, I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"I had no control over what I was doing and I wish like hell you would have shot me." Clint said rolling to his side and propped himself up on one of his elbows. "You had your gun why didn't you pull it?"

"I already told you… I couldn't hurt you, I let my feelings get in the way." she said turning her head to face the other way. "Let's just try and forget about it."

"Victoria don't shut me out." Clint said as he reached forward and turned her head back to face him, he noticed the tear slid down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb. "I'm sorry."

Victoria looked up at him and the connection she felt to him was too much for her to handle, when she felt him move closer to her she quickly slid out from under his arm and sat up with her back to him. "We should let Director Fury know that I know about O'Dell." Victoria said changing the subject.

"I will but we need to talk." Clint said as he sat up next to her and she quickly stood up on her feet keeping her back to him.

"I can't do this, I just…" Victoria didn't get a chance to finish what she was saying because one of the doctors had walked in the room.

"Agent Matthews we need to run some test to see where you stand at the moment." The doctor said as he walked closer to her. "Director Fury has sent Dr. Banner to conduct the testing and he should be here very soon."

"Ok, I'll be ready as soon as I get cleaned up." she said to the doctor and he walked away to go to one of the labs.

"Victoria we are not done with this." Clint said walking over to her but she still didn't turn to face him.

"I know that but it's going to have to wait, can you inform Fury that I know about O'Dell?"

"Yeah." Clint said as he walked away.

Victoria wanted more than anything to tell Clint how she felt about him but she didn't want to ruin what was left of their friendship and partnership. She knew things would be different between them after what had happened, her trust in him wasn't completely gone but it was not as it was before. After Tony had showed her how to hack into the data base Victoria looked in to her visitor's log and was upset that all six months not once did his name appear on it. It was just the same two names repeated over and over, Tony and Natasha. She didn't know the Avengers personally so it wasn't a shock that they didn't visit, it did shock her how much Tony did but she had expected Clint to be there and he wasn't.

Clint walked into one of the briefing rooms to call Fury to let him know that Victoria knows about O'Dell looking for her. He had no idea what had gotten into him back in the gym, he wanted to and was about to kiss her until she had moved from under his arm. Natasha had been right there was something between them and he didn't know how to deal with it. Clint just shook his head and dialed the Fury number.

"What do you got for me Agent Barton?" Fury said once he answered.

"We got a slight situation down here." Clint said wiping his hand across his head. "Agent Matthews knows about O'Dell."

"How the hell does she know about O'Dell if no one down there other then you know about this?" Fury snapped at him.

"Tony Stark." Was Clint's only response.

"I did not tell Stark about this." Fury growled at him.

"Stark taught Matthews how to fucking hack the data base and who knows what else he has been teaching her." Clint said sounding aggravated and pissed. "I don't like this friendship the two of them have."

"I don't either… Stark having Agent Matthews on his side is not good but he is the reason she is fighting so hard."

"Director I don't understand how they got so damn close in such a short time." Clint said as he closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, he could feel the jealousy eating at him.

"Agent Barton if you think something is going on between them, stop." Fury said in a stern voice. "Stark and Pepper Potts both friended Matthews, she has been working with the both of them."

"Yes sir." Clint said to him.

"I'll be down there in one hour to talk with Matthews about O'Dell, bring Agent Romanoff up to date with all of this." Fury said signing off before Clint could respond to him.

Victoria walked into the lab where one of the doctors was updating Dr. Banner on her. "Hello gentlemen." Victoria said as she approached them.

"Hello Agent Matthews." Dr. Banner said in a soft voice as the other doctor just nodded at her. "Director Fury said you have been doing amazing at healing and getting back to condition."

"Yes, I think I'm ready to get back to work and out of this ground base." Victoria said with a smile. "And you can call me Victoria."

"Ok Victoria, well let's run these test and see where you stand and then worry about getting you back out there." Bruce said to her as he motioned for her to sit on the examine table. "I was wondering something." Bruce said in a soft voice as he examineined her.

"What do you want to know?" she asked him.

"I've spent some time working with Fury after the New York incident and the way he was worried about you seemed a little… off for him."

"Ok… what is your question?" Victoria asked with a hesitated voice.

"I know there is a connection with you two and I was wondering what it was." He asked her and she looked a little shocked then she looked over at the other doctor who happened to be patiently waiting for her answer. Bruce looked over his shoulder and noticed the same thing. "Doctor can you give us a few minutes alone?"

"Yes Dr. Banner, I can just run this stuff to the other lab." The doctor said as he quickly left the room.

"Sorry about that, I should have asked him to leave before I had asked that." Bruce said turning back to face her. "Was I right is there a connection between you and Director Fury."

"Yes you're right." Fury answered him walking into the lab startling the two of them. "Agent Matthews… Victoria is my niece."

Bruce looked between the two of them and was completely confused, they didn't look like they were related at all. Victoria and Fury could tell he was confused, Fury just stood there smirking and Victoria shook her head at him. "Dr. Banner, Nick was married to my mother's sister."

"Oh… does anyone else know about this?" Bruce asked looking back over at Fury.

"No one other than Agent Coulson knew about this, I wiped the records out that showed the relation." Fury said walking closer to them. "Dr. Banner you seem to have a good eye on details. When my wife Stephanie died I promised her I would do everything in my power to keep Victoria safe."

"But she's an agent for SHIELD so how do you plan on keeping that promise?" Bruce said sounding shocked. "Shouldn't you have started by not letting her join?"

"Victoria was already a SHIELD agent when Stephanie died and being one of my best agents I couldn't just let her go." Fury said as he looked over at Victoria for a second before looking back at Bruce. "The records were wiped out by Agent Coulson so no one would be able to use her against me."

"None of the Avengers know about this… even Tony Stark is out of the loop?" Bruce asked sounding shocked.

"No trail, paper or computer could put this one together." Victoria said to him smirking. "Like Nick said you have a good eye for details and with the life we live around here it's hard for anyone to pay close attention to it."

"I over heard Agent Barton telling you about Victoria knowing about O'Dell… what is that about?"

"That is about a man out for revenge against Matthews because she killed his brother." Tony said walking into the lab. "So what does Dr. Banner have a good eye about details for?"

"Does anyone knock before walking into a room anymore?" Victoria said sounding shocked and relieved that Tony didn't hear any more than that.

"I missed you too Matthews." Tony said sarcastically to her. "So Director Fury were you planning on telling anyone about this manic that is after our friend here?"

"How the hell did you find out about…" Fury stopped talking when he realized exactly how Stark found out about O'Dell. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop looking into SHIELD's files without permission to do so?"

"If there weren't so many secrets around here I wouldn't have to do that." Tony said as he sat in one of the chairs getting comfortable.

"It's a secret agency." Fury said sarcastically to him. "What do you want Stark?"

"I want to know what you are doing about this O'Dell problem."

"We have this under control and you can stay out of it." Captain Rogers said as he entered the room.

"Are you serious… how many more people are going to walk in here?" Victoria said shaking her head and Bruce smiled at her.

"Sorry Agent Matthews but I was told I could find Director Fury in here." Steve said to her in polite voice and she nodded at him.

"You told Capsicle about this problem but kept me out of it." Tony snapped at Fury. "I am the only friend she has in this room and I was kept in the dark."

"You're too hot headed and that's why no one said anything to you." Steve said smirking at him.

"Um… guys can I finish with Victoria's examine while you finish this conversation in another room?" Dr. Banner said to them when he realized she was getting uncomfortable with what they were talking about.

"Yes and once you have the results please inform me." Fury said walking to the door. "Gentlemen let's take this to the briefing room."

Victoria and Bruce watched as the guys left the room. "Thank you Dr. Banner, I can't stand how they talked liked I was sitting here."

"Just call me Bruce, I noticed the same thing and it was my pleasure to get them out of here." Bruce said smiling at her as they continued the examine. Bruce worked with her for an hour and was very pleased with the results of all her test. "Victoria I think you are ready to get back on the field, there aren't any signs of long term effect from the coma and your body has heal very well from the long slumber you took."

"I guess if Captain Rogers could sleep for seventy years, six months wasn't too bad for me." she said smiling at him.

"The difference is that Captain Rogers was enhanced and you weren't." Bruce said walking over to the lab desk. "You were able to get well because you pushed yourself to do so but I do want to monitor you for a while until we know for sure things are well with you."

"But you are going to clear me, right?" Victoria asked.

"Yes, I'll just check in on you every now and then to make sure things are going well." Bruce said smiling. "Let's go let Fury know and we could see if they are done arguing about things yet."

"Yeah I doubt they are." Victoria said hoping off the table. "I wouldn't be surprised if Clint and Nat are in there already." The two of them walked over to the briefing room where they could hear the yelling coming from, Bruce shook his head at her as they walked in. Everyone was so deep in the argument they didn't even notice them standing there until Clint looked over at them then it got quiet. "You don't have to stop because of us." Victoria said sarcastically to them.

"How did the test go?" Fury asked looking over at Bruce and he just nodded at him. "Good, now let's figure out what we should do about this problem we have."

"I still think we just hunt down the guy and kill him then the problem will be gone." Tony said shrugging his shoulders.

"We can't just hunt him down and kill him, we need a plan." Steve said shaking his head at Tony.

"What is with you and needing a plan?" Tony asked him sarcastically. "The plan is kill him."

"We have been trying to track him for days now and we can't get a lock on his location." Natasha said as she ran her fingers through her hair. "The trap we had in Washington isn't working."

"Why don't we just put Victoria at a location O'Dell can find to draw him out?" Clint said looking over at her. "We set up around her and wait."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Tony growled at him.

"That would put her right in the middle of danger." Bruce said looking over at Fury. "Wouldn't that be the opposite of what you should be doing?"

"I think Clint is right." Victoria said in a loud voice so she could be heard. "If I am spotted O'Dell will make a move."

"We will be there with her, she won't be alone." Natasha said looking over at Bruce. "Victoria has done missions like this before and it worked for us every time."

Fury smiled at them, seeing the trio work together has been what he had wanted for the seven months. "Then that's the plan." Fury said looking over at the rest of the guys standing there.

"I'm all in for getting this guy but using Victoria as bait is just wrong." Tony said shaking his head.

"Tony I won't be alone all of you, the Avengers will be there." Victoria said with a soft smile on her face.

"Not all of us, Thor isn't around." Steve said smiling at her. "But I think we could handle this without him."

"Well at least this time I get to see how well you guys work together." Victoria said smiling at them. "The last the Avengers worked together I missed the show."

"Apparently you're going to have front row seats for this one." Tony said sarcastically. "Vicky is this your way of proving you deserve to be an agent?"

Clint quickly stood up on feet when he heard that comment and Natasha quickly moved to stand in front of him. "Tony that is not what I am doing, I am a SHIELD agent and this is what we do." Victoria said to him as she glanced over at Clint and could see he was pissed. "Now you can see how I work on the field rather than have to read it in a file."

"Ok but if something happens to you I am not going to be the one to tell Pepper someone else will have to do that." Tony said shaking his head. "She seems to be fond of Capsicle so he can do it."

"Nothing is going to happened to her." Natasha said sound agitated.

"Agent Matthews can we speak alone?" Fury said nodding his head to the door and Victoria nodded as she followed him out. They walked down the hall and turned the corner to talk in private, Fury stopped and turned to face her. "Victoria don't make me break my promise, you be careful out there."

"Nick I will be careful and I'm ready for this." Victoria said to him.

"I will talk with Dr. Banner and make sure he says nothing about us to anyone." Fury said as he kissed her forehead then turned and walked away.

Victoria turned around to go back to the briefing room but came to a sudden stop when she saw Clint standing there. Clint looked hurt and pissed at the same time, she wasn't sure how long he had been standing there and didn't know what he had seen or heard. When she went to talk he put his hand up stopping her then shook his head and walked away from her. "Clint." She yelled but he kept walking not even turning to look at her.


End file.
